Amazon drops 1.4bn deal to buy iRobot after EU veto reports

Amazon has dropped its planned 1.4bn ( 1.1bn) acquisition of the Roomba maker iRobot, amid EUopposition to the deal. The e-commerce company will pay a 94m break fee to iRobot, which immediately announced plans to axe 31% of its workforce – or 350 employees – and the departure of its chief executive. The Wall Street Journal had reported on 18 January that the EU's executive arm was preparing to block the deal and had informed Amazon of its proposed view. Amazon and iRobot said in a joint statement the takeover had "no path to regulatory approval in the European Union, preventing Amazon and iRobot from moving forward together". David Zapolsky, the Amazon general counsel, said: "Undue and disproportionate regulatory hurdles discourage entrepreneurs, who should be able to see acquisition as one path to success, and that hurts both consumers and competition – the very things that regulators say they're trying to protect."